Dhaka 'Carefully Observing' Afghan Situation; Speculation on Bangla Extremists Joining Taliban....

 Dhaka 'Carefully Observing' Afghan Situation; Speculation on Bangla Extremists Joining Taliban....

Bangladesh on Monday said it was “carefully observing” the developments in Afghanistan which may have an impact on the region and beyond, amid speculation by security experts here that some home-based extremists were trying to join the Taliban in the war-ravaged country. 

The brutal war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Kabul before entering the city and taking over the presidential palace, forcing embattled President Ashraf Ghani to join fellow citizens and foreigners to flee the country.

“Bangladesh is carefully observing the fast evolving situation in Afghanistan, which we believe, may have an impact on the region and beyond,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. It said the Afghan people should decide the course of the future for themselves while “we wish to see Afghanistan as a peaceful, stable, prosperous, responsible and contributing member of the South Asian region and the global community.

But) Bangladesh believes that a democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan as chosen by its people is the only guarantee of stability and development in the country, according to the statement.

The foreign ministry said Bangladesh would be happy to continue to work “with the people of Afghanistan and the international community” for the socio-economic development of that country and recalled the invaluable Afghan support Bangladesh received in its 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.

Ahead of the Taliban militants capturing Kabul, a senior police official on Sunday said some Bangladeshis were trying to reach Afghanistan as Taliban gave a call to “join them in the war” “Some people from Bangladesh already left Bangladesh to join the Taliban… we assume some of them were detained in India while some were trying to reach Afghanistan by foot or through different ways,” said Dhaka Police Commissioner Shafiquk Islam.

Another police official, requesting anonymity, said a section of extremists in Bangladesh was trying to reactivate their outfits which were nearly crippled after severe clampdowns by the establishment in the past few years. He said these groups “don’t have any capacity to wage any campaign afresh”.

According to security experts, several outlawed Bangladeshi groups have long been maintaining links with the Afghan extremists though the two countries share no direct land border.

The non-government Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies Chairperson Retired Major General Muniruz Zaman said the changeover in Afghanistan would definitely impact Bangladesh and “we have reasons to be worried”.

“We have seen a direct link between Afghan Jihad and the militant activities, which began in Bangladesh in early 1990s,” he said recalling that many Bangladeshis went to Afghanistan in 1990s to join the Afghan resistance against the then Soviet Union troops. Zaman said these elements launched the terrorist activities on their return home from Afghanistan.

Asked if it would be easy like before for extremist Bangladeshis to reach Afghanistan crossing India and Pakistan — in view of the existing Dhaka-Delhi security cooperation — the analyst said despite apparent difficulties “it is easy for those who are involved in such activities”.

“When the IS (Islamic State) was waging a war in Syria, the (so-called) ‘Bangladeshi warriors’ made their ways to Syria … compared to that phenomenon it is easier for them to reach Afghanistan,” he said.

Bangladesh has no mission in Afghanistan and its interests are carried out from Uzbekistan. Bangladesh Ambassador based in the Uzbek capital Zahangir Alam said Bangladeshi nationals were leaving Kabul as chaos reigned in the airports after the Taliban invasion collapsed the government on Sunday.

At least seven people died in Kabul Airport on Monday, as thousands gathered to flee the country. Bangladesh-based BRAC International said it recalled its Bangladeshi and foreign employees stationed in Afghanistan as fears of violence with the Taliban re-emerged. The NGO employed nearly 3,000 workers in 10 Afghan provinces.

It said currently 14 expatriate BRAC staffers, including 12 Bangladeshis, were stationed in Afghanistan while three Bangladeshis by now were on their way back home. According to Alam, previously around 500 Bangladeshis were working with BRAC but most of them returned as the situation worsened in Afghanistan.

He said Kabul currently has no political leadership “but bureaucrats are still working there” and the Bangladeshi mission sent a note to the Afghan Foreign Ministry on Friday, requesting the information on the whereabouts of Bangladeshi nationals living there.